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Tag: President Muhammadu Buhari

  • Buhari faces dilemma in anti-corruption war

    Buhari faces dilemma in anti-corruption war

    President Muhammadu Buhari must be gradually facing up to the reality and complexity of ruling a country in a democracy, where things are not always what they seem. If he thought he had the liberty and exclusive right to circumscribe the boundaries of his war on corruption, he must by now be coming to terms with how grossly mistaken he is. It is no secret that Nigerians appear to be enjoying daily breaking news on the astounding sleaze that went on under the Goodluck Jonathan government. Indeed, already, some of the looted funds are being recovered or surrendered. In consequence too, reputations are being shredded, especially that of the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and its backers and leaders.

    Those opposed to President Buhari’s anti-corruption war, or who oppose his methods, are beginning to fight back. They are presenting the president with a number of moral dilemmas. First, they suggest that the president has no moral, political or constitutional defence to limit the war to only his predecessor’s time in office, as he stated before assuming office and has reiterated since he assumed office. He should extend the probes farther down the line. Second, they also argue that those who financed his election did not use their personal funds but public funds, and must therefore be investigated as well.

    The president’s opponents are clearly not making these arguments from altruistic or patriotic points of view. They are simply determined to stymie the anti-corruption war, or failing that, to make the sky fall on everybody’s head. If the president should heed the call to expand the investigations, he risks making it unwieldy and impracticable. But whether he likes it or not, he will not be able to convince his opponents that no APC state government deserves to be investigated. And if he continues to shun the calls to expand the investigations, the campaign will only grow more deafening, if not even threatening.

    The president made a mistake from the beginning by inadvertently allowing his anti-corruption campaign to be conducted with fanfare and extravagant flourish. He of course had no choice but to call the last government to account, but he is president, and should have anticipated the reactions of his opponents, many of whom for sentimental reasons are still smarting badly from the humiliation they received at the last polls.

    But is the president really able to control or limit the manner and circumstances of the investigations? Could he order the EFCC to limit its investigations? Or could he persuade the media to de-emphasise selected reports? The president clearly faces a dilemma. One way out, probably the best way out, is for him to give better and bigger meat to the public and the media to chew. (See main article). While he continues his anti-corruption battles, perhaps on as many fronts as he wishes, let him more importantly refocus the attention of the country to his main blueprints for the radical make-over of Nigeria, away from corruption and EFCC/ICPC, and to governance and ideas for rebuilding Nigeria in the 21st century and beyond, along the change paradigm his party promised before the 2015 polls.

  • Buhari warns against extortion in police recruitment

    Buhari warns against extortion in police recruitment

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said he will not tolerate any irregularity or extortion of money from unemployed Nigerians in the coming recruitment into the police.

    He gave the warning during a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Police Affairs and the Police Service Commission at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    According to a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, President Buhari expressed sadness over the extortion of applicants who are made to pay bribes before being accepted into the police force

    He said the practice was totally unacceptable.

    The President told the officials that those in charge of recruitment and training in the police must be above board and eschew every form of extortion and underhand dealing.

    He said: “You must ensure that the recruitment process is transparent. Those who will conduct the recruitment must be above board. It should not be heard that they receive gratification or extort money from those who want to enlist in the police.”

    He also directed the Inspector-General of Police to prune down the number of policemen attached to dignitaries, and redeploy all policemen withdrawn from that role to regular police duties.

    On the stagnation of policemen on a particular rank for many years, the President counselled the PSC to review the current structure of the police, and make recommendations on how the problem can be solved to boost the morale of serving policemen.

    The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Police Affairs, Dr. James Obiegbu, had in his briefing, listed inadequate police personnel, dwindling finances and non-rehabilitation of police training schools as some of the challenges facing the force.

  • Attacks on Buhari’s war against corruption – A prelude

    Attacks on Buhari’s war against corruption – A prelude

    Unsurprisingly, the war against corruption to which President Muhammadu Buhari has committed himself as a top priority, is threatening to assume an ethnic and religious colouration. The two colourations are equally dangerous for Nigeria’s unity and even existence, but for now it looks like the threat of ethnic colouration is more immediate and worrisome.

    The most obvious ethnic colouration was painted last week by Professor Ben Nwabueze, the respected constitutional lawyer and once minister of education under General Sani Abacha’s regime. In a widely publicised statement of over 3,100 words entitled: “Corrupt practices: Igbo leaders’ position on probe of past governments”, he enunciated what he claimed was the view of Igbo leadership on President Muhammadu Buhari’s declared war on corruption. He followed this with an equally lengthy interview in THE PUNCH of August 9.

    The president, he said, is right to consider his fight against corruption a priority but wrong to limit himself only to the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan he took over from. To do so, he said, would be selective which, in turn, would make his war unjust, unfair and, in the end, ineffective.

    On the surface, the professor’s argument looks impartial and unassailable. But read his statement and interview in between the lines and it becomes difficult, if not impossible, not to conclude that his objection to Buhari limiting his war on corruption to Jonathan’s administration was more because it was widely regarded, rightly or wrongly, as Igbo-dominated than because of the reasons he gave.

    Next week, God willing, I’ll examine the professor’s statement to show how it is not as impartial and unassailable as it looks at first glance.

    Meantime, to the other danger, namely that of giving the president’s declared war on corruption a religious colouration. This time the man with the big brush is the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Most Reverend Mathew Hassan Kukah.

    Bishop Kukah has been angry with the media for what he says is their misinterpretation of his call on Buhari to avoid the danger of populist posturing against corruption at the expense of good governance. The public seems to have perceived his warning as a call on Buhari not to waste time probing the Jonathan administration. As such the bishop has come under widespread attack, especially in the social media.

    Along with the professor’s veiled attack on Buhari’s anti-corruption war, I will, next week, God willing, examine the Bishop’s call on Buhari to reconsider his stance on corruption to show how the two calls are not as impartial as they seem on the surface.

    For the rest of this piece, I’ll like to return to my view that between the two dangers of giving Buhari’s war on corruption an ethnic and religious colouration, the former is more immediate and worrisome for now.

    A little over a month ago, on July 14, to be specific, my friend, Chief Loretta Aniagolu, a prominent Enugu politician and business woman, forwarded an email to me with a link to Radio Biafra in which the station claimed, in effect, that Buhari had declared the Igbo his mortal enemies in an interview with the Hausa service of the BBC. She said she had received similar mails from abroad and was at first inclined to dismiss them until she received the last one which she was forwarding to me.

    The “former dictator” speaking today on BBC Hausa services monitored in Kaduna, Radio Biafra claimed, said he was convinced the Igbo have always voted against him because of his role in the Nigerian civil war.

    “I don’t have any regret, and as such do not owe any apology to them, in fact if there is a repeat of the civil war again, I will kill more Igbo to save the country,” the station quoted him as saying.

    Chief Aniagolu said she was forwarding the email to me just to confirm if Buhari did indeed say so, even though she found it difficult, if not impossible, to believe. “Please go through and tell me…Did he really say this?, she asked.

    Buhari could never have said such a stupid thing, and never did, as his spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, and the Hausa Service of the BBC itself have since confirmed. But this has not stopped the radio station from carrying on with its virulent campaigns against Buhari as someone who hates the Igbo. Chances are, millions of impressionable Igbo listeners, especially those who never experienced the war, believe the station.

    A careful reading of Nwabueze’s statement about the position of Igbo leadership on Buhari’s war against corruption suggests even the more enlightened leadership are probably inclined to believe Radio Biafra, albeit more out of political expediency  than because the station was saying the truth, which, of course, it wasn’t.

    Unfortunately, image, especially in this age of the Internet, has since become more potent than substance. If, therefore, the president wants to succeed in his war against corruption – and he owes it to the millions of Nigerians who voted for him to bring about change to do so – he simply must deal with the image that his government is against any tribe or religion, false though this image is.

     

    Re-Boko Haram: the vindication of Shettima

    Sir,

    I think I disagree with your view today (August 12). Even if the war was being won by Boko Haram, Shettima shouldn’t have come in public to say such a thing. What solution did he suggest as governor? You guys, I think, are rather celebrating Boko Haram instead of condemning them.

    Awo, +2348062681413.

     

    Sir,

    Nonsense article as usual. Tribalistic and jaundiced columnist. +2348033468602.

     

    Sir,

    What a nice piece. Governor Shettima really deserves a pat on the back. +2348032766229.

     

    Sir,

    In your incisive article on the vindication of Shettima, you stopped short of the obvious conclusion i.e. the imperative of a thorough judicial prove of military spending in the last 16 years. The $9million in cash smuggled into another country still makes me weep for my country! We cannot sweep such things under the carpet!!

    Mansur Ahmed,  +2348033143403.

     

    Sir,

    Minimah’s submission is a harsh truth. If people like you had used your biro well, it would have made a difference in the fight against those criminals.  +2348036769949.

     

    Sir,

    For about a month now, Boko Haram (BH) has not struck. Is it as a result of weapons acquired by PMB? The truth is that BH has achieved the aim of most northerners and so they are winding up gradually. By December, as PMB said, there will be nothing like BH. We only wait to see how the North will solve the Chibok girls April fool.# +2348061562735.

     

    Sir,

    Truth is constant and God has vindicated Governor Shettima. However, Gen Badeh and Gen Minimah should thank their stars that President Buhari is now a committed democrat, least both will be behind bars explaining what happened to defence budgets under their watch, not to mention the humiliation and embarrassment they caused the military by announcing to the world that a former Army general and commander-in-chief of the Nigerian armed forces had no certificate, they are dammed jolly lucky fellows.

    Nyebuchi Wobo,  Port Harcourt.

    +2348057812496.

     

    Sir,

    Now that Shettima has been vindicated and the ‘arinis’ subdued, when he settles with them, I hope another group will not emerge, may be demanding that people should walk with their heads down. Maitatsine, Akaluka head hunters, etc. It is time they had pity on others and a permanent solution sought. Most of the countries in West Africa are smaller than some of our states. The yoking together of heterogeneous elements is a major problem. Please suggest something. +2348052813321.

     

    Sir,

    Re-Boko Haram: the vindication of Shettima. Irrespective of the condition of our army on the battlefield then, Shettima lacked the professional competence to make the de-motivating proclamation he did. What was his expense and military contribution when it was ‘hot’? How was the election that made him to have been re-elected made possible? It’s easier to use ordinary mouth to clear the bush meant for cultivation! Now, has boko haramism ended?

    Lanre Oseni.

    +2348033518726.

    Sir,

    It seems that the errors continue. The officer’s letter was not dated December 2004, but rather December 2014.

    Sagir Tanimu,   Department of Computer Science,

    Bayero University, Kano. +2347038946575.

     

    Read your column as I always do. The officer who wrote the former president would not have done so on 15/12/2004. Please do the necessary correction. Baba D. Hamidu, +2348023130090.

  • Buhari accepts Abdullahi’s resignation from Customs

    Buhari accepts Abdullahi’s resignation from Customs

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday accepted the resignation of the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi.

    Abdullahi is billed to proceed on his voluntary retirement from Tuesday, August 18.

    The Customs boss had earlier written a letter dated August 3 to the President notifying him of his desire to proceed on voluntary retirement from Tuesday.

    President Buhari’s approval of Abdullahi’s request was dated August 14 and personally signed by the President.

    In the letter, the President thanked the NCS boss for his services to the county in the last six years.

    The President’s letter, titled “Voluntary retirement from the Nigeria Customs Service” read: “Dear, Alhaji D.I. Abdullahi. I write to acknowledge the receipt of your letter Ref. No. NCS/ADM/HQ/P. 35802 of 3rd August, 2015 conveying your decision to voluntarily retire from the Nigeria Customs Service with effect from Tuesday, 18th August, 2015.

    “I note with appreciation your services to this nation, especially as the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service in the last six (6) years.

    “Accordingly, I hereby approve your voluntary retirement from the Nigeria Customs Service with effect from 18th August 2015.

    “I wish you the very best in your future endeavours.

    “Yours sincerely, Muhammadu Buhari.”

    The Nigeria Customs boss had in his letter to the President thanked him for the confidence and trust reposed on him since he (Buhari) was inaugurated on May 29.

    Stressing that he would be six years in office as the Comptroller-General of the NCS by August 18, he recalled that on assumption of office, he articulated six-point agenda which he vigorously pursued.

  • November deadline mystifies Boko Haram

    November deadline mystifies Boko Haram

    While decorating the new service chiefs on Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari charged the nation’s armed forces to bring the Boko Haram menace to an end in three months. Militarily speaking, and given the rearmament begun under the Goodluck Jonathan presidency but now intensified, coupled with the coalition the president has deftly built with Nigeria’s neighbours to take the fight to the insurgents, both the task of defeating the sect and meeting the November deadline should be achievable. Under Dr Jonathan, many such optimistic deadlines were routinely given by the government and scornfully defied and broken by the insurgents. Notwithstanding this poor record, which shattered the credibility of the armed forces, particularly the army and the air force, it does appear that resolving the corruption conundrum in the anti-terror war and reorganising and motivating the military should knock Boko Haram into a cocked hat.

    But there is nothing the president has said thus far that gives the impression his understanding of the Boko Haram menace is much better than his predecessor’s. He of course recognises the socio-economic dimension of the problem, and has spoken blithely in support of recognising and tackling poverty, a causative agent of the revolt. He has also indicated the value of forming and inspiring a coalition to give muscle to the war effort. In addition, he appears sensibly to understand the place of education in the equation, and how wiping out ignorance among the populace could deny terror merchants the support base they have so casually and complacently relied on. Undoubtedly too, as the president has indicated, and in response to external pressures, he will intensify efforts to fight a clean and just war, as well as deliver justice to victims of the war, including members and leaders of the sect extra-judicially murdered by the police.

    President Buhari will do many things different from his lethargic predecessor, Dr Jonathan. He will approach the war honestly, diligently and with all the integrity he can muster. Reassuringly too, he will handle the counterinsurgency exercise with all the methodicalness at his disposal. Indeed, the country will not be irrationally optimistic to expect that soon, all will be quiet on the war front, not excluding the bombing cauldrons. But irrespective of all the salutary changes he will bring to the war effort, and going by his statement when he decorated the new service chiefs, his understanding of Boko Haram has only gone a tad above that of his predecessor’s. He appears to perceive the problem as an existential issue, one of crime and punishment to ensure the survival of the country, and one in which he speaks effusively of misguided individuals as the bane of the country’s many headaches. The president seems painfully at odds with the historical significance of the Boko Haram insurgency.

    If effective and comprehensive strategies are to be developed to fight Boko Haram terror, the Buhari government must go beyond the usual explanations. The government is admittedly not wrong to identify economic, social and even political injustice as some of the factors that predisposed the Northeast to revolt. They are in fact right to single out religious fanaticism, poverty, ignorance, corruption in government and in the military, and general misrule. These factors, and many more, are important in understanding Boko Haram. And these factors may in fact explain why Dr Jonathan put too much premium on crushing and defeating the insurgency militarily. These factors may also be why President Buhari, having taken care to approach the problem methodically, also believes that he now possesses the military antitoxin to neutralise the sect in three months.

    Both President Buhari and Dr Jonathan, however, exaggerate their understanding of Boko Haram’s causative factors, and put misplaced confidence in what should be done to defeat the menace. Boko Haram’s foot soldiers may be poor, harassed, uneducated and exploited; yet, its leaders have a fair understanding of what they think of Nigeria and what must be done to tackle the problems that hobble it. It does not matter how contemptuously the rest of Nigeria and the outside world view the Boko Haram leaders’ worldview, all they care about is their vision of the revolutionary changes they seek to impose on a country they visualise as diseased and untenable. Without a deep understanding of the dynamics shaping, influencing and inspiring Boko Haram, whatever solutions are conceived may, therefore, be temporary and probably ineffective.

    A sizable number of the social and religious revolts that have convulsed the country took place in the Northeast. The Northeast is regarded as the poorest part of Nigeria. But apart from poverty, and perhaps misrule, which is not exclusive to that blighted region, religion and empire building (caliphate) greatly fascinate the people. Borno State, the epicenter of the current revolt, not only hosted the great Kanem-Bornu Empire, it was the first part of what later became Nigeria to introduce Islam. To Boko Haram leaders, the ongoing revolt is little more than a political clash between a secular order and a theocratic order, a clash, in their view, between the unwanted old and the desired new. Terror is merely a tool to bring about the utopia of their dreams. Events in other parts of the world, such as the fearsome exploits of al-Qaeda, and now ISIS, simply give fillip to the Boko Haram project and help refine and sharpen their ideology.

    President Buhari must bring into the Northeast equation an understanding of the historical dynamics that have shaped the world for centuries. Nigeria is not an island, and is thus not immune to these caliphal forces, whether they are cruel and brutal or gentle and modernising. Nothing however indicates that the Buhari government has a substantial understanding of these historical forces. If the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) is not guilty of exaggeration, its announcement that it barred nearly 5,000 Nigerians from travelling abroad between January and March this year probably to enlist in the bloody reign of terror masterminded by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is not just an indication of a passing fad, but a countervailing manifestation of powerful historical dynamics. Boko Haram, with its theocratic overtone, has become an ideology. It is unlikely to end until it is replaced in the esteem and fascination of the people of the Northeast by something bigger, better and more endearing.

    Empire builders are an integral part of human society and history. There will always be movements, religions and ideologies attempting, sometimes successfully and at other times unsuccessfully, to reshape the world and redraw borders. In contemporary times, Russian borders have been redrawn twice, and are still being redrawn. There is no proof the exercise will end soon, as Ukraine and Georgia are showing. The Mongoloid Empire of Genghis Khan is regarded as the most brutal ever, leaving approximately 40 million people dead in its wake, and wiping out or transplanting whole nations from Asia to Europe. Historians describe him as “a great ruler who was equal parts military genius, political statesman and bloodthirsty terror.” Under Stalin’s Soviet Union, it is estimated that more than 15 million people were killed to nurture the Soviet communist system and ideology. Suleyman the Magnificent’s Ottoman Empire also authored fierce displacement and destruction of peoples and cultures, without undermining the laudatory view of his rule. Like ISIS, Boko Haram is bitten by the same ambition bug as these other historical greats.

    The allure of ISIS will continue for some time to come, attracting fervent and adventurous youths from all parts of the world. ISIS can of course not be divorced from the terrible mistake committed by the United States when it overthrew Saddam Hussein’s Sunni/Baath rule, a mistake and regime change policy that has not only produced ISIS but also empowered and elevated Iran into a major regional power destined to shake and influence the Middle East and parts of Europe in the near future. Al-Qaeda in Iraq feasted on the disintegration of Iraq, then transformed into ISIS when the former’s ideology became constricting, and is now exploiting the Sunni-Shiite dichotomy to unleash a reign of terror on the region and carve out a contiguous, more or less Sunni, theocratic territory. Even if the US were to compound its mistake by putting boots on the ground sometime in the near future, it is difficult to see them extinguishing the ISIS flame.

    If the Nigerian Immigration Service actually barred about 5,000 Nigerians from travelling to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS, as it claims, then the question to ask is: how many others have successfully smuggled themselves into linking up with ISIS and al-Qaeda? Last week, two Kano youths were caught in India attempting to enter Pakistan from where they hoped to journey to Iraq. The fascination for ghoulish and grandiose adventures will not end even after Boko Haram has been militarily defeated. It is of course necessary to engage Boko Haram in the battlefield, but President Buhari must get his perspectives right. Military victory and economic empowerment will not be sufficient to end the fascination for Boko Haram ideology or similar extremist ideologies. The government must urgently seek to replace the passion for Boko Haram and other such ideologies with a unifying national essence or raison d’etre. This is the biggest challenge facing Nigeria today: how to instill a unifying and inspiring concept of Nigeria into the minds of Nigerians, how to infuse into them the powerful and overriding doctrine of Nigerian exceptionalism. But given the dynamics on the ground, it is hard to see President Buhari and the northern elite who are on the front lines of the terrible war embracing such radical measures.

    To replace Boko Haram’s fervency and ideology in the hearts of Nigeria’s boisterous youths, and to supplant its irresistibly isolationist, exclusionist and parochial attractions, will involve subsuming the North’s main religions under a national ideology in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious pastiche. At the moment, the mind of the country is vacant, except for irritating cobwebs. If Boko Haram can’t fill that vacancy because of defeat, ethnic irredentists will try to; and if ethnic bigots fail, religious bigots will give it a shot. The Nigerian condition is so bad that except those who live in denial, everyone is apprehensive of the implications of Nigeria’s long-standing inability to shake off its label as a mere geographical expression.

    Boko Haram has not been intelligently led. Were it to have brilliant leaders, Nigeria would be in far worse trouble than its puny intellect can manage. Just as the world’s tectonic plates are shifting, the world’s political and behavioural plates are also moving, sometimes very radically. Indeed they have never stopped shifting. North Africa and the Middle East have witnessed great shifts. Rashidun, Abbasid, Umayyad and Ottoman Caliphates, and other ‘successor’ entities within Nigeria’s borders such as the Sokoto Caliphate and Kanem-Bornu made vast regions restive and fertile for revolt and adventure. Rather than set a November deadline to defeat Boko Haram, President Buhari and his government should be drawing lessons from the factors that made great societies and empires endure for a long time. Those lessons will help Nigeria fashion a way out of its present cul-de-sac and make victory in the Boko Haram war certain and enduring.

    If the right measures are not adopted, if the ‘nations’ in Nigeria’s South and the ‘nations’ in Nigeria’s North continue to hold on tightly to their prejudices and exclusionist ideologies, there is no amount of military power, local and international, that can defend the country when a powerful, intelligently-led movement comes along. Nigerian leaders have not been bright enough to learn from their country’s chequered history since independence. If the present political structure and behaviour are not reformed, the country would be sailing near the wind, courting disaster and disintegration. Boko Haram is the perfect example of why it is time to think outside the box.

  • Looters beware

    Looters beware

    President Buhari’s insistence that all who looted the treasury will be brought to book is commendable

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to restoration of probity and sanity to national life should be sweet music in the ears of patriots and nationalists. For so long, things have gone wrong and the easy way that have been preached by many Nigerians is privatisation of the nation’s patrimony. Despite that path, values and virtues have virtually disappeared from the public space.

    The President, who was elected on the solemn pledge to reduce corruption to the barest minimum and make that path unattractive, has been confronted with a stiff resistance by those who may soon be charged before the law courts to answer to charges of theft and fraud. In the past two weeks, the President has been receiving visitors ostensibly on matters that relate to the plans to expose those who fiddled with the national wealth.

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan was at the Aso Villa, where he called the shots until May 29, to confer with his successor. He was reported to have brought up the ordeal of his aides who had been guests of the security agencies to respond to queries. Former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, the former Chief Security Officer Gordon Obua and some of the ministers are said to have been invited as a probe has been launched into large-scale malfeasance under the Jonathan administration.

    Thereafter, the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee was seen at the Villa to confer with the President, ostensibly on related matters. Although details of discussions held behind closed doors have not been made public, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, The Most Rev. Matthew Kukah,  gave credence to speculations that they had come to mediate at the instance of Dr. Jonathan.

    He indicated that the President should spend more time in addressing other pertinent problems confronting the country and insistently said the former President deserved commendation for his “spectacular act” of conceding defeat after the March presidential election. He subtly upbraided President Buhari for “frittering away” the goodwill engendered by the Jonathan concession.

    We find nothing wrong in the voluntary activities of the Peace Committee. Nigerians, especially those who have held high offices in the land, have a duty to take more than passing interest in national affairs.

    However, it is unacceptable that a matter that came up during the election and on which the electorate have spoken so loudly should be made subject to undue negotiation after the inauguration of the administration. President Buhari campaigned on the need to stem the tide of corruption. He solicited the support of Nigerians in undertaking the battle. It is therefore unacceptable that he would be reminded of a need to soft-pedal on the battle. Both Dr. Jonathan and the Peace Committee should be reminded that, in a democracy, the will of the people is paramount.

    The mind-boggling revelations coming out on how the national wealth was shared among a few should have elicited a strident call from the former president, his aides and admirers; as it would avail him the opportunity of laying the truth in the public domain. All that the administration’s key officials could ask is that the due process be followed. We agree with the Peace Committee that the Department of State Services, the Police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have a duty to ensure that the Rule of Law prevails in the process of investigation and prosecution of suspects.

    To this end, we commend the president’s resolve to take those against whom prima facie cases have been established to court speedily. He has said, very soon, they would be arraigned and the charges against them made public. Thus far, no one has been unduly detained for days or denied access to their lawyers. The appointment of the Itse Sagay Panel to insulate the process from allegations of partisanship and pettiness is a step in the right direction. The reputation of the eminent lawyers and academics is an indication that the President does not intend to witch-hunt anyone.

    It is obvious that if the corruption virus is not exterminated, it has the capacity to snuff life out of Nigerians and Nigeria. The high level of unemployment in the country, poor state of infrastructure and the capital flight engendered by the sorry position of educational and health facilities, could be traced to the evil that general maladministration and corruption wrought on the economy.

    The Augean stable must be cleansed and there is no better time to do so than now. Rather than stand in the way of the Buhari administration to clear the mess, all statesmen and nationalists — indeed, all patriots —should lend a helping hand in ensuring that those duly ascertained as having a hand in perverting the course of national growth and development are punished and their loot recovered.

    All felons, no matter how highly or lowly-placed, must be punished to serve as deterrence to others, especially as President Buhari is taking steps to set up the structure of his administration.

  • The Buhari change revolution

    The Buhari change revolution

    A coalition of activists, led by Femi Falana (SAN), at Dr. Musa Babayo’s book presentation in Abuja, deliberated on the government’s anti-corruption crusade, economic and foreign policies and the way forward. Gboyega Alaka reports.

    Although President Muhammadu Buhari has embarked on a global pilgrimage to right the wrongs and atrocities committed by successive regimes and improve the nation’s image in the comity of nations, his mission and intentions, however noble, may remain a Sisyphean exercise, if priority is not given to the fight against corruption, economic diplomacy and foreign policy.

    This was made known at the presentation of the book: “Economic Diplomacy and Nigeria’s Foreign Policy,” written by Dr. Musa Babayo, immediate past chairman, Board of Tertiary Education Trust Fund. Legal practitioner, Femi Falana (SAN), and a coalition of activists seized the opportunity of the occasion to provoke a discussion on why the Buhari administration should beam its searchlight on reviving the country’s foreign policy and the anti-graft crusade.

    In a lead paper, titled: “The right to accountable government in Nigeria,” Falana was not happy that what should be a national commonwealth has been hijacked and placed under the control of a few hands. This, he said, runs contrary to nationalism and principles behind demands for independence. Nigeria has ratified the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and is therefore under a duty to ensure the exercise of the right to development and respect the economic, social and cultural rights of the people, with due regard to their freedom and identity and in the equal enjoyment of the common heritage of mankind.

    Falana is not comfortable with the politicisation of government’s anti-corruption crusade; especially with allegations of vendetta being read into the Buhari government’s actions. He said, “Since the allegations of bias or persecution being levelled against the EFCC are deliberately designed to discredit the renewed fight against corruption and shield looters from prosecution, it is high time that the attention of Nigerians was drawn to the fact that corruption is fighting back.”

    He noted that majority of the petitions that formed the basis of the ongoing investigation by the EFCC were submitted before the emergence of the Buhari administration.

    On his part, Babayo said Buhari’s anti-corruption drive should be pursued with all amount of vigour and radicalism, considering that over $157 billion has been lost by Nigeria, according to a Global Financial Integrity report, to illicit financial flows between 2003 and 2012. He said this is where the nation’s foreign policy formulators should intervene.

    Babayo also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to “turn his attention to the activities of multinational corporations in Nigeria, with a view to repatriating the funds stolen from Nigeria and putting a stop to further bleeding of the nation’s economy.”  He drew a parallel between the economic policies of Buhari as a military Head of State and now as a civilian president and wondered if there were lessons from his economic policies then that could be useful in the current administration.

    A former Minister of Foreign Affairs and founder of Savannah Centre, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, on his part, expressed concern about the fact that “Africa has the highest amount of foreign investments abroad.” He wondered how Nigeria and indeed Africa can be great, if the people do not invest at home. He said decades of talks on diversification of the economy from a mono-economy should now be translated into concrete actions, with all major stakeholders coming together to foster better economic management.

    Gambari, who was former head of United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur, said government must tackle headlong the current socio-economic challenges, such as high poverty level, huge youth unemployment and perennial disconnect between the government and the citizens. He advocated “a new permanent inter-ministerial council which would provide an effective link between our general foreign policy endeavours with external trade and international economic interest.”

    His views were supported by a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, who bemoaned the deplorable state of most Nigerian foreign missions saying, “Almost half of our missions overseas are in deplorable condition.”

    Ahmed therefore emphasised the need for the present government to critically review the number of Nigerian embassies abroad. The ex-SGF said, “We have to get the management of our resources right in this country. When we can predict that work on the second Onitsha Bridge will start and be completed in a certain time, then we would have improved.”

    He denounced a situation where Nigerian politicians make every development issue political, wondering how it is that “At the time of campaign, we will go and say Onitsha Bridge will be completed,” only to use the same bridge to campaign at the next election? He therefore clamoured for proper national planning, as was being attempted by the late Yar’ Adua administration.

    President of Public Interest Lawyers League, Mr. Abdul Mahmud, gave a legal insight into Nigeria’s foreign policy, when he argued that for almost a decade and half, Nigeria’s foreign policy has retrogressed almost to a point that her claim of Africa as its centre-piece is today a non-recognisable relic of the foreign policy museum.

    He argued that “In the years following Nigeria’s glorious contributions to the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles on the continent, there has not been any conscious attempt at reinvigorating her foreign policy to meet contemporary realities, globalisation, high modernity and the plurality of global politics.”

    But if others were interested in anti-graft crusade and foreign policy, the Executive Director, Human Rights Monitor, Festus Okoye, wants Buhari to implement the report of the 2014 national conference. He said since the last all Nigerian conference on foreign policy, nothing has been said about it again and posited that “You cannot embark on good and effective foreign policy if everything takes us by surprise.”

  • CBN urges Buhari to sign FSS2020 bills into law

    CBN urges Buhari to sign FSS2020 bills into law

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently give presidential assent to three  bills passed by the National Assembly concerning Financial Sector Strategy 2020 (FSS 2020).

    The CBN is particularly worried that the bills may be given less attention than they deserve because they were passed during the last days of the last National Assembly.

    CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele who amde the appeal during the e-Government Summit 2015 in Abuja, lamented that the bills had over-stayed their welcome on the floor of the National Assembly.

    Represented by the apex bank’s Deputy Governor (Operations), Alhaji Suleiman Barau  on the occasion, he said the bills had for seven years been at the National Assembly, adding that the president’s quick assent to the bills will “pave the way for the establishment of the Nigerian International Financial Centre and other ancillary requirements in line with international best practice.”

    Emefiele said the CBN was ready “to support the e-governance project in Nigeria as way of deepening payment system in the country as well, as help enthrone transparency and accountability. It is in this light that the CBN has been supportive of the FSS2020 project as a way of establishing an international financial centre in Abuja with all the benefits accruable from the establishment like the Dubai model.”

    The CBN described the three bills as unique because of the number of years they had spent at the National Assembly, saying  the CBN therefore ”plead with Mr. President to take time out and look at the bills and give them his assent because they will help to move this country forward.”

    Also at the ceremony, Anambra State Governor, Mr. Willy Obiano said the deployment of information communication technology (ICT) in the state’s governance structure had boosted its internally generated revenue (IGR) from N500 million monthly to N1.4 billion. He urged the Federal Government and states of the federation to borrow a leaf from the Anambra experiment.

    He said the move has also helped the state to fight crime, improve its security network and manage workforce by building a comprehensive data bank for the state.

  • New appointments vindicate Buhari – APC

    New appointments vindicate Buhari – APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South East geopolitical zone said on Friday that recent appointments by President Muhammadu Buhari is a clear demonstration that the President bears no grudge against any section of the country.

    In a statement issued by its Zonal Spokesman, Osita Okechukwu and made available to journalists in Abuja, the party said the appointment of Dr. Ibe Kachikwu and Engr. Dennis Ajulu as Group Managing Director and Group Executive Director (Exploration and Production) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) respectively vindicated his earlier position that every region of the country under his watch would receive equal and fair treatment.

    He also applauded the enlistment of Enugu Airport among the airports to be upgraded, describing it as a clear indication and demonstration that Mr. President bears no grudge against Ndigbo for not voting for him.

    He recalled that South-East APC had earlier assured the Igbos that President Buhari will not marginalize them for not voting for him and therefore urged Ndigbo to disregard gossip-terrorists and ethnic merchants peddling falsehood that President Buhari hates the Ndigbo.

    “Since I cannot assume to know all the pressing issues facing Ndigbo or what Ndigbo expect of the new Nigeria we wish to build, I would greatly appreciate if you could kindly arrange a consultative meeting with Ohaneze Ndigbo where we could discuss and try to determine how this could best be done.

    “I considered it pertinent to hold consultations with all communities nationwide in order to build a mutually acceptable national consensus. Needless to add, no national consultation will be complete or meaningful without a meeting with the leadership of Ohaneze Ndigbo.”

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  • Senate confirms Service Chiefs

    Senate confirms Service Chiefs

    The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Major Gen. Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin as the Chief of Defence Staff.

    Also confirmed were Major General Tukur Yusuf Buratai (Chief of Army Staff); Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas (Chief of Naval Staff); and Air Vice Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar (Chief of Air Staff).

    The military chiefs were grilled in a closed session with the lawmakers for over four hours. They were appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari on July 13.

    President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, said the officers answered questions on various issues, after which they were cleared for confirmation.

    “Having successfully completed the screening and confirmation of the nominees, it is clear that their appointments were based on merit,” Saraki said.

    He added that the appointments came at a very crucial time, especially at a time the country was still battling with insurgency in the Northeast.

    The President of the Senate urged them to work hard to ensure the insurgents are routed in record time, assuring that the Senate would always give the Armed Forces every necessary support.

    Saraki charged them to restore the battered image and prestige of the Armed Forces and to also tackle corruption in military procurement process.